THE TALK OF THE TOWN what it is, exactly, that draws one person into the life of another. Mr. Gleick (FUchard Feynman) joked that he was at the lunch under false pretenses, be- cause he was never going to do a biography again. M- terward, he eXplained his sentIment "My book took five years, which by current biographical standards is the blink of an eye," he said. "But I wasn't prepared for what happens to your psyche when you spend that long tunnelling further and further into someone else's life. Here was some- one I had never met in real life, and in some ways I knew him better than I knew my wife or my par- ents, and yet there is so much I won't ever know, which is frustrating. One gets taken over by this other person to the extent that I would sometimes be getting dressed for an occa- sion and I would think, Well, what would my sub- ject wear? And then I would recoil and think, Walt a second, I still have a life!" The personalities of the twelve biog- raphers gathered for lunch seemed well intact, and yet, as the conversation went on, the individual names of the biogra- phers blurred, while their subjects re- mained vivid. Perceived this way, the lunch became an answer to that often posed question "If you could invite anyone in history for lunch, who would it be?" This group was a fine and eclectic one. It included Henry Kissinger and Benjamin Franklin and maybe even Elvis Presley (all three speaking through the voice of Walter Isaacson, who had written a book on Mr. Kissinger and had arrived at the Harvard Club think- ing he was about to begin work on a book on Benjamin Franklin but had been cajoled into momentarily consider- ing Elvis). Also present were Delmore Schwartz, John Cheever, Colette, Jack- son Pollock, Alice James, Michel Fou- cault, FUchard Feynman, Henry Luce, Isak Dinesen, and a group of Poets in Their Youth r '.(: : , k , ,', : !.?,'. y i ,: <^ :i 41 ,.., y 1 / * ':'2' ' IY ,: :,:::::' ..,':.. i.:,.,'; # , /' Ð { G I.. /: .':t. :. .. '" I. V .. '.II .. ... J I ,. v . '* '.L .J) , - .. A ... ":.n . ".. ...... ...' f l. J< "Unfortunately, Lance can't be here tonight to accept this award. But it's a thrill and an honor for me to accept 1t on his behalf on my way over to his place with his small onion and pepperoni. " \. I , I -....... ;. " . y ,l, m \ \: . As the biographers chatted, one couldn't help sensing the ghosts of their subjects hovering above them. The topic of honesty came up very early. Mr. Atlas (Delmore Schwartz) la- mented what he referred to as "the Rashomon effect," but then Mr. Gleick (Richard Feynman) opined that "people don't have to tell the truth to be useful." Walter Isaacson (Henry Kissinger) grimly stated that "almost every docu- ment regarding foreign policy in the American archives was written to mis- lead someone," and, as a result, inter- viewing was essential. Jim Miller (Michel Foucault) replied that he prefers hard documents to inter- views, because "people reinvent the past," but Judith Thurman (Isak Dine- sen, Colette) pointed out that the minute someone begins to write about himself or herself with posterity in mind it changes everything. "That is what's wrong with those French diaries," she said. "I t' s the process of turning the self into a commodity," Mr. Miller said. . "But candor seems definitelv on the rise," Mr. Atlas said. "Candor is not enough," Eileen Simpson (Poets in Their Youth) said. "If you talk about all the people J.F.K. slept with, you have to make an attempt to understand it." "There are some things about my family that will never be said," Susan Cheever stated. "Like what?" Mr. Atlas asked, with a mixture of curiosity and skepticism. Alan Brinkley (Henry Luce) com- mented that "there is a difference in the value of knowing about the sex life of a creative individual versus that of a political figure." Ms. Thurman suggested that Mr. Brinkley title his book "Hanging Luce." "But don't inner demons cre te pub- lic actions?" Ms. Cheever asked. Mr. Isaacson replied, "Kissinger's re- lationship with Jill St. fohn need not be understood to understand his public . " actIons. 'What about all those missile crises?" Mr. Atlas asked. .